Professional golfer Adam Hadwin made up for an embarrassing moment at the Valspar Championship by treating the crew at Innsbrook Resort's Copperhead Course in Palm Harbor, Fla., to lunch. Photo via Ryan Stewart on Twitter
The enduring image of Adam Hadwin from the Valspar Championship is that of a petulant professional golfer. The one that emerged after that PGA Tour event is of a contrite pro.
Hadwin, a 37-year-old who joined the Tour in 2015 and has one career Tour win and nearly $25 million in lifetime earnings, earned viral notoriety on March 21 at the Valspar Championship at Innisbrook Resort’s Copperhead Course in Palm Harbor, Fla. As he was struggling to a two-round 5-over-par 147 and second straight missed cut, Hadwin — in a fit of pique — slammed his club into the ground after an errant shot. Hadwin tried to stalk away, but the clubhead had smashed a sprinkler head, and water started spurting.
Video of Hadwin — a “mistakes-were-made” expression etched on his face as he stood on the damaged sprinkler head in the futile attempt to stop the flow — went viral.
Even his wife, Jessica, contributed to the furor with social media posts describing it a “sprinkler gate,” with such commentary as: “Friday: On the 10th hole, it appears Adam was in the vicinity of some sort of sprinkler malfunction,” and, the day after, “0 days since the last incident.”
An argument could be made that online dragging was punishment enough for Hadwin, but the following week he moved to make real amends. The Monday after the Valspar was over, Hadwin contacted Tracy West, the tournament director, and said he wanted to pay for the replacement head. He also wanted to treat the grounds crew to lunch.
Six days after the bashing, the Innisbrook crew was treated to a Chipotle spread. And Hadwin didn’t cheap out.
“There was plenty of food,” says Ryan Stewart, Innisbrook’s GCSAA Class A director of agronomy and 21-year association member. “Guys were taking leftovers home for days afterward. They all loved it. They were all thankful that he went out of his way. He didn’t have to do that. He could have just been on his way, but he felt bad.
“We didn’t think anything else would happen. We knew he’d be fined from the tour. We were joking that he should buy all of us lunch, and that’s what happened.”
Stewart was the one who kept sprinkler gate from becoming a full-on irrigation fiasco. He recalls the day was breezy, so he had staff members stationed “all over the golf course” to blow off greens. Stewart’s radio crackled to life.
“I got the call right after it happened, over the PGA Tour radio, that there was a sprinkler head going off on No. 10,” Stewart says. “I called one of the guys over there and said, ‘Can you see the head? Turn that box off.’ They powered the box down and nothing happened. I ran to the pump house and switched all the pumps off. I could have isolated that one valve, but in the spur of the moment, it was basically panic mode: Why is this on?”
At the time, Stewart didn’t know Hadwin’s heavy hand was the source of the havoc.
Innisbrook has had an electronic irrigation system since 2015, so Stewart was certain it wasn’t the kind of malfunction that can plague older hydraulic systems. Some superintendents will drain hydraulic systems prior to big events to prevent random irrigation issues from popping up.
“I was like, how is there a sprinkler head running? Nothing was set to run,” Stewart says. “But one of our guys over there in that area had seen him whack the ground. We couldn’t believe what happened. We were like, what the hell?”
After the fact, Stewart chuckled along at the fallout.
“It’s funny. When you see the video of him smashing the sprinkler head and the head comes on, his instant reaction is he’s shocked,” Stewart says. “He’s like, ‘I’m sorry.’ He felt really embarrassed.”
Stewart says the whole event, from tantrum to turn-off, took less than four minutes. Once Friday’s round was over, the damaged head was replaced with a dummy head, then was replaced completely — eventually on Hadwin’s sheepish dime.
In addition to the sprinkler replacement and the makeup taco bar, Hadwin also sent a video message to the crew.
“It was really nice of him to do that,” Stewart says of Hadwin’s make-niceties. “It was a great touch.”
Andrew Hartsock is GCM’s editor-in-chief.